My offering from the Druid’s Garden this month is – Garlic or Allium sativum, one of my favourite herbs of all time and a staple in my diet.

It’s a member of the Alliaceae family of herbaceous perennial flowering plants like onions, or garlic’s other relatives: chives, shallots, leeks, and a plant called Rakkyo which incidentally is pretty good at offsetting the saltiness of soy in sushi! I digress.

There are many different types of garlic from all over the world, and in some European countries these varieties grow like weeds in fields!

When is garlic not garlic? When it’s Elephant garlic. This is generally the most popular variety, which isn’t actually a true garlic at all, but from the leek side of the family and has a much milder flavour.

Humans are an interesting bunch, much of the early information on garlic has nothing to do with its medicinal benefits, or even its taste. In fact, the upper class refused to eat it as they didn’t like anything with a strong odour. The main use (and in some early texts the only use) for garlic was as an aphrodisiac. I guess it would only work if you could get past the garlic breath!

Traditionally in Korea, women were given six clove black garlic to inspire supernatural powers and immortality.

I also found an interesting reference to garlic in Christian Mythology. When Satan left the Garden of Eden, garlic grew from his left footprint and onions from his right. Of course we know that garlic has many uses particularly in healing.

Ayurvedic medicine regards it highly, with garlic having five of the six tastes (rasas) missing only sour. The Romans, Greeks & Egyptians used it to prevent disease and to boost strength.

A clove a day keeps bad health away – ok so it was first said about apples, but the same is true for garlic. It’s great for colds and flu, infection, respiratory issues, coughs, and so much more. Garlic is an immune booster, natural antibiotic, and a clove a day helps guard against high blood pressure, helps reduce cholesterol, it even helps with bacterial and fungal infections.

The father of modern medicine Hippocrates used garlic to treat cancerous tumours – do its benefits ever end?

Here is garlic’s secret. It’s in the Allicin, which is released when the garlic clove is crushed. It’s a sulphur compound, and it isn’t always in the “odourless” garlic tablets thus making them medicinally less effective but more practical. However there is an easy fix when garlic tablets are taken with parsley it neutralises the odour without the need to remove the brilliant Allicin – parsley also helps with garlic breath too!

Even though it wasn’t used in the culinary arts, once people worked out its taste was appealing – it was in everything! Raw garlic cloves crushed or finely chopped release more flavour, but if mellow is what you’re after, cooked is the way to go! Baked garlic cloves have an amazing flavour transformation which has a warm, sweet, almost nutty taste that has been used in ice-cream and brownies! But beware – burn garlic and you get an intense bitter flavour that’s not so nice.
I use garlic in just about everything – sauces, roasts, and marinades the uses are endless!

When cooking with garlic the odour can be tricky to get off your hands, so try a little salt or lemon juice to remove.

Garlic is quite easy to grow in pots or in the ground and is more of a winter crop. It’s also a great companion for lettuce, keeping pesky aphids away. It even improves the flavour of Beats! But it might be best not to plant garlic near your potatoes, peas, or legumes. Generally it will deter bugs and pests thanks to Allicin – an antifungal and antibiotic released when the garlic is crushed (or eaten by bugs).

I’d normally offer an edible recipe but this time I’m giving you my natural pesticide spray. Its not rocket science - Throw some garlic, chilli, and a small amount of detergent into a spray bottle. Add some water that’s just off the boil, mix and let it cool then spray. The garlic acts as an anti fungal, the bugs don’t like chilli, and the detergent helps it all stick to the plants. Works a treat and it’s cheap and green!

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